Hi(, another cut and paste post, my apology).
In a land not that far away a simple need grew to become a modern necessity.
The Postmaster General emerged from centuries of established customs and traditions.
In 1851 the Postmaster General’s Department (Chief Postmaster) assumed responsibility for postal services from the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District.
Post Offices included the Post Office Savings Bank, Mail Services, Telegraph Services (from 1854), Telephone Services (from 1887).
In the 1890’s the Postmaster General’s Department was responsible for implementing certain provisions of the Electric Light and Power Act. This function was transferred to the Public Works Department (VA 669) in 1901.
https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/acts/state-electricity-commission-act-1958/105
After Federation in 1901, the Commonwealth Government (VRG 87) became responsible for all post, telegraph and telephone services.
Location of Records(, this one being crucial to an open democracy).
Few relevant records are held by the Public Record Office. Most are presumed to have been taken over by the Commonwealth and some may have been subsequently transferred to Australian Archives.
The PMG has helped people organize from a collection of scattered villages and godforsaken seaports to a country of established laws embodied in the 1901 constitution.
The PMG has served as a crucial piece of infrastructure connecting people the world over.
https://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/australia-post-times/clip1/
However after years of meddling from what can best be described as a pornocracy, it is less then the bastion of a free population, more a painted pony selling foreign made wares to appease shareholders by propping up a balance sheet.
After the Whitlam dismissal the PMG was be relegated to history as an antiquated “concept”.
In 1975 the Fraser government saw fit to dismantle the lynch pin of our modern society and create two new entities, Postal and Telecommunication Department, those two departments better known as Australia Post and Telecom, the latter to be rebranded as Telstra under the Howard government.
To be continued.
